Local News in Brief : Orange : Station Owner Spurns Mobile’s Bid to Take Sign

The owner of an independent gas station turned away contractors Monday morning who came to haul away the Mobil sign that has hung there since 1953.

The Mobil Oil Co. on Monday officially dropped Don Clark’s station on Main Street as an independent dealer, but Clark, 75, is refusing to disassociate with the company.

“No matter how long he has the sign, he will not be receiving any more deliveries (of gasoline), and he will not have use of the Mobil credit card (machine),” Mobil spokeswoman Carole Edwards said.

The station sells far less than the 200,000 gallons of gas annually required to be maintained as an independent dealer for the oil company, she said.

“We had to make this decision based on the economic factors,” Edwards said. “We have to administer this policy uniformly in order to administer it fairly. It would be unfair for other dealers if we made exceptions.”